CHELSEA crashed to a shock defeat against struggling Real Betis to leave their hopes of reaching the last 16 of the Champions League on hold.

Jose Mourinho's men have now failed to win on their travels in this competition for more than a year and they were undone once more by an ordinary Betis side currently fourth from bottom in La Liga.

A first-half goal from the left boot of substitute Dani put Chelsea to the sword in Seville after the jittery Blues defence had failed to deal with Capi's cross and a clever dummy from Edu - which left William Gallas flatfooted.

Victory would have given Chelsea a place in the knockout stages but in reality it would have been an injustice on the home side who had the better of the first half despite losing top scorer Ricardo Oliveira through injury in the 24th minute.

The enforced change brought its own luck with Oliveira's replacement, Dani, striking the winner with admirable calm just five minutes after being introduced into the action.

Betis are now just one point behind the Londoners who may need to win both games to ensure qualification.

Mourinho must have been relishing a return to purely football matters when the game got under-way after his verbal volleyball with Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger.

Ever since Mourinho arrived at Stamford Bridge, his penchant for team rotation had served him well but the inclusion of Eidur Gudjohnsen in attack at the expense of Didier Drogba was a baffling one.

Betis' hopes of causing something of an upset appeared to have evaporated in the first half when Nano was replaced by Paulo Castellini and Oliveira was stretchered off under a challenge from Ricardo Carvalho.

In the 28th minute though Betis were in front when a low cross from Capi evaded the Chelsea defenders and after Gallas had been fooled by Edu's dummy, substitute Dani placed the ball under Petr Cech.

Betis were now controlling proceedings in the midfield and for once Frank Lampard and his cohorts were out-thought and out-fought - a rare occurrence at any level since Mourinho took charge last year.

In the 39th minute though Chelsea squandered a golden opportunity to level the scores when Gudjohnsen sliced the Betis defence open with a perfect pass to Joe Cole.

However, the England international's shot was well saved by Pedro Contreras to maintain the home side's slender advantage.

In the 65th minute Mourinho played his final card - bringing on fit again Damien Duff for the out of sorts Arjen Robben.

The home crowd were now beginning to sense a victory that would leave them just a point behind their opponents in Group G.

It was difficult to see where Chelsea would find the inspiration to overcome the deficit and such was the frustration that Drogba was also shown the yellow card following a face-to-face confrontation with Betis keeper Contreras.

In the 74th minute, Chelsea were unlucky not to equalise when Shaun Wright-Phillips crossed only to see Michael Essien's shot strike both posts before rolling into the arms of the Betis keeper.